We’ve been hearing about the labor shortage for a long time now, and while it’s not a new problem, it has certainly gotten worse over the last couple of years. A disconnect between preferred jobs and available labor, less flexible work hours, and the COVID effect of many leaving the workforce are some common reasons for it, but what about lack of engagement? According to the State of the American Workplace report by Gallup, 51% of the US workforce is not engaged. And what’s one of the best ways to keep employees engaged? Training them, of course! Read on for why training your employees is important, and for how to keep your employees happy and committed for the long haul.
Why training your employees is important
Your employee is one of your biggest assets. They are what makes your business operate, which is why it is so critical to keep them engaged and motivated. Training your employees helps with this because it shows you care about their well-being and that you are committed to their growth. Ongoing training and development inspires your employees to do their best work, and to remain loyal. In fact, studies have shown that 93% of employees stay longer when a company is committed to career development and training. So, what are the benefits of training your employees?
Retention
What goes hand in hand with the labor shortage? The challenges associated with retaining employees. Once you’ve gone through all the trouble of hiring someone, it’s important to put just as much effort into keeping them on board. Providing employees with training and a focus on their career development is an easy way to show them appreciation while inspiring them to stay with your organization. In fact, training and development is such a big part of businesses that for many, offering ongoing training in the workplace is a competitive advantage. Training your employees provides them with a sense of belonging, and has been found to lead to a 59% decrease in turnover rate.
Camaraderie
Training your employees and providing them with the opportunity to learn about new topics is a great way to help coworkers become better collaborators. In this way, employees from different departments become familiar with a variety of topics while meeting other coworkers. This also opens the door for peer collaboration, and studies have shown that collaborating improves workplace performance. Employees can learn from one another, help each other within their areas of expertise, and everything in between. Better yet, those intra-employee bonds not only improve performance, but retention too.
Leadership
Training your employees is a great way to build confidence and retain employees, but it’s also an excellent tool for setting your business up with leaders you can depend on. With proper and regular training, you can discern which employees are suitable candidates for managerial roles down the line. While leadership talent can be found through new hires, finding candidates you’ve already invested in and trained from the get-go gives you the opportunity to build a dream team throughout the company’s life cycle, not just while recruiting new talent.
Engagement
And now for the most important reason of all, boosting workplace engagement! Boredom in the workplace can lead to poor working habits and dissatisfaction in the workplace, which you want to avoid! Regular training and career development sessions will spice things up for your employees and give you an opportunity to continuously gauge employees skills, strengths, and weaknesses. Engaged employees have been shown to reduce absenteeism by 41%, and increase productivity by 17%. However, you want to be sure you strike a good balance between training your employees in a reasonable manner and forcing several lunch-and-learn sessions per month. So, what are some ways to keep employees engaged?
- Offer short and sweet training sessions, teaching one skill at a time in a bite-sized manner, like a 7-minute seminar on the importance of inventory accuracy.
- Don’t limit yourself to training employees on work they must do on a daily basis, give them some variety by teaching something that’s completely unrelated. For example, give your company’s development team a 7-minute training in sales.
- Take time to train your employees on “soft skills”, offering sessions on leadership, communication, collaboration, and time management.
- Involve management. Though managers have enough on their plate already, find a way to incorporate them into these training sessions. Employees are more likely to be invested in a training initiative if they see their manager considers it important.
In the end, training your employees is all about empowering them to do their best work. With the right balance of training, employees feel valued and are infused with confidence that translates to their work. By training your employees you not only help improve the employee, but the company as a whole. If you’re looking to build a supply chain team of rock stars, we can help. We provide custom, role-specific training sessions tailored to your unique needs and operations. Shoot us an email or give us a call, and let’s make your supply chain your differentiator, starting with your staff.